Interviews About interviews

Interviews can take place informally (e.g. a conversation between a visitor and front-of-house member of staff) or more formally, where the interviewer has a predefined set of questions to ask of the interview participant. Structured interviews involve using only the set of pre- defined questions; semi-structured interviews involve using a set of pre-defined topics but allowing for the interviewer to ask them in his/ her own way, depending on how the interview progresses. Interviews

can take place face-to-face or via the telephone. With face-to-face interviews it can be easier for the interviewer to read the participant’s body language, whereas telephone interviews can have the added benefit of enabling the interviewing of non-users.

Top tips for planning and running interviews Top tips Planning the interview

• Decide how you will identify and chose your participants. Are you seeking views from non-users and/or a specific type of user? Will you need a sampling strategy (Section 4)? Will you need to approach people in advance to arrange their participation or will you approach people ‘cold’ at the time of the interview?

• Decide on your list of questions. Remember that interviews offer you the chance to gather a richer narrative of feedback from participants and so your questions should reflect this; take the opportunity to ask a few more open questions than would be possible with a questionnaire.

• Only ask personal questions if you absolutely need to do so.

• Decide whether or not you will take notes or make a recording during the interview.

Meeting the past at the Fitzwilliam Museum

6. What data collection methods are out there? 34

Top tips During the interview

• Make sure the interview isn’t any longer than necessary. An exit survey or gallery interview should last no more than 15 minutes maximum.

• Be upfront and honest with your participant at the start of the interview (or when recruiting participants) about the length of time it will take and how their comments will be used.

• If your interview is semi-structured, then it is appropriate to probe the

participants for further information if you feel that their first answer doesn’t give you the depth of information you were hoping for.

• Leave any personal questions to the end of the interview, when a rapport has been built up and the participant is likely to feel more comfortable about providing you with this information. Try to use pre-defined categories for as many personal questions as possible (e.g. age, ethnicity) to avoid causing any embarrassment. Don’t try to cajole participants into providing any personal information they are not comfortable giving!

• Hold the interview in an appropriate place, away from any disruptions but not in an isolated place. Ensure that you have colleagues nearby, should you or the interviewee need to call upon them suddenly.

Top tips Resource implications

• Following the interview, you will need to write up any notes or transcripts promptly to ensure that information is not forgotten. Although this is not as time consuming as with focus groups, it can still take more time than using self- completion questionnaires, particularly if you have used a lot of open-ended questions. Make sure that the necessary resources to do this are considered in the planning stages.

Top tips Other considerations

• If you are collecting personal information during the interview (see Section 9 if you aren’t sure what constitutes ‘personal information’), the notes/transcripts and any databases containing this information must be stored and processed according to the Data Protection Act (1998).

• Interviews should start off with the interviewer explaining the purpose of the discussion and the rights of the participants under any legislation (e.g. the Data Protection Act 1998) or according to best practice guidance (e.g. the right to withdraw from the research at a later date). Participants should be provided with an information sheet and two copies of a consent form (see Appendix 6). Both copies of the latter should be signed and one returned to the evaluator.

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Plan the evaluation

Link to the toolkit

Case study: Analysis of gallery questionnaires at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

The Fitzwilliam evaluated visitors’ impressions of their visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum during Museums and Galleries Month Welcome Weekend 2007. Information was collected through a self-completion questionnaire and interviews. Using the data from 122 completed questionnaires, a report was drawn up looking at visitor satisfaction; it included the use of charts and tables. Examples of these for the following question can be seen below:

‘How do you feel about your overall visit today compared with your expectations?’ The following table and chart shows the responses to this question for all visitors:

The data was further broken down for ‘first-time’ visitors. You can see from the chart and table below, that many more first-time visitors found the experience better or much better than expected:

This is explained by the fact that regular visitors are likely to know what to expect and therefore find that the visit meets their expectations. This approach illustrates the usefulness in interrogating the data according to different categories of visitor and of visually representing numerical data so that it can be easily understood by the audience. Expectation rating (all) Number (Total=122) % Much worse 0 0 Worse 0 0 About the same 56 46

Better 47 38 Much better 19 16 Expectation rating (first time) Number (Total=122) % Much worse 0 0 Worse 0 0 About the same 14 29

Better 24 49 Much better 11 22

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6.5 Focus groups